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Did. Not. Finish.
Dec. 14th, 2024 01:54 amRegarding the dreaded DNF list...
(This is adapted - and hopefully improved, a bit - from something I wrote for my other account.)
I actually don't normally put everything I don't finish on my main DNF list. The idea is that it's the stuff where I made a conscious decision to stop reading, for one reason or another. I made up the concept (for myself, anyway) of type 1 and type 2 DNFs, to reflect this difference. Type 1 is what I'm talking about here, the ones you stop for cause. Type 2 is the ones you just drift away from and may come back to later. I do this a lot, the drifting thing. I don't feel like that's the same thing as going, "I hate this," and quitting.
Some examples:
Twilight - ok, this one illustrates the line, a bit - or, I don't know, maybe it makes it less clear, because I stopped and started on this about four or five times, I think. I said I was quitting and then I came back. Several times. But I did finally go, "NO" and quit for good, which makes it a type 1. Just a weird one. (Rob & I actually did make it through the movie, one time in the interim, with much giggling.)
A Discovery of Witches - Now this one is different, because I really liked the first half of this, but then they went off to... was it France? and it turned into a sort of Interview with the Vampire kind of thing (added: actually, I don't even remember what I meant by that, but that was how I thought of it!), and anyway, it completely changed tone, and I decided I was done.
Then I need a category for "I liked these authors until I read this book":
(OK, that's probably phrased badly. I don't hate the author, I just don't like the book. It's just that you tend to think it's a good way to find good books, to go with authors you like. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.)
A couple of examples for these:
Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson - to be fair, I think this may have been a really old book, but the edition I have was published well after he died (which was in 2001). Anyway, totally hated it, couldn't stand to keep going. (I think I remember thinking it was really, really sexist.)
A Curious Beginning - I don't even remember the name of this series, but there are more of them (I checked, finally - it's "Veronica Speedwell Mysteries") so I guess somebody likes them. It was the same author as the "Lady Julia" mysteries (Deanna Raybourn) which I did really like. But I just couldn't stand these, don't exactly remember why, just that something about them grated on me.
I think I need to just quit saying this nonsense about types 1 & 2 and say that my DNF list is just the books I don't think I will ever finish, or, well, don't intend to finish - because I am nothing if not mercurial - and the former "type 2's" are just unread/unfinished.
(...and if you want to see the rest of the actual list, it's over here.)
And ha! If you click on "Twilight" in the tags below, there's an entry from one of the times I was actually reading it. (I'd totally forgotten we watched the movie with Rifftrax - no wonder there was so much giggling involved!)
(This is adapted - and hopefully improved, a bit - from something I wrote for my other account.)
I actually don't normally put everything I don't finish on my main DNF list. The idea is that it's the stuff where I made a conscious decision to stop reading, for one reason or another. I made up the concept (for myself, anyway) of type 1 and type 2 DNFs, to reflect this difference. Type 1 is what I'm talking about here, the ones you stop for cause. Type 2 is the ones you just drift away from and may come back to later. I do this a lot, the drifting thing. I don't feel like that's the same thing as going, "I hate this," and quitting.
Some examples:
Twilight - ok, this one illustrates the line, a bit - or, I don't know, maybe it makes it less clear, because I stopped and started on this about four or five times, I think. I said I was quitting and then I came back. Several times. But I did finally go, "NO" and quit for good, which makes it a type 1. Just a weird one. (Rob & I actually did make it through the movie, one time in the interim, with much giggling.)
A Discovery of Witches - Now this one is different, because I really liked the first half of this, but then they went off to... was it France? and it turned into a sort of Interview with the Vampire kind of thing (added: actually, I don't even remember what I meant by that, but that was how I thought of it!), and anyway, it completely changed tone, and I decided I was done.
Then I need a category for "I liked these authors until I read this book":
(OK, that's probably phrased badly. I don't hate the author, I just don't like the book. It's just that you tend to think it's a good way to find good books, to go with authors you like. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.)
A couple of examples for these:
Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson - to be fair, I think this may have been a really old book, but the edition I have was published well after he died (which was in 2001). Anyway, totally hated it, couldn't stand to keep going. (I think I remember thinking it was really, really sexist.)
A Curious Beginning - I don't even remember the name of this series, but there are more of them (I checked, finally - it's "Veronica Speedwell Mysteries") so I guess somebody likes them. It was the same author as the "Lady Julia" mysteries (Deanna Raybourn) which I did really like. But I just couldn't stand these, don't exactly remember why, just that something about them grated on me.
I think I need to just quit saying this nonsense about types 1 & 2 and say that my DNF list is just the books I don't think I will ever finish, or, well, don't intend to finish - because I am nothing if not mercurial - and the former "type 2's" are just unread/unfinished.
(...and if you want to see the rest of the actual list, it's over here.)
And ha! If you click on "Twilight" in the tags below, there's an entry from one of the times I was actually reading it. (I'd totally forgotten we watched the movie with Rifftrax - no wonder there was so much giggling involved!)
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